Under the Harvest Moon
by Crimson Rogue
Summary: Sometimes being a good friend meant putting up with being someone's personal guinea pig.


A/N: Wow, it's been awhile since I've written anything... I'm sure the quality of these one shots are going to suffer because of that, but there's not much I can do now except try to drag myself back into the saddle. 'Course I was never the best writer in the first place, so this shall be interesting.

I just want to say however that for those of you who might be holding onto some miniscule hope that I will be picking OM&G back up, unfortunately that is never going to happen. I honestly can't look that story any more without shaking my head and wondering what I was on when I wrote it. I'll still keep it up, just as a sort of snap shot to remind myself of how NOT to write a multi-chapter story, but it won't be updated anymore. If you want to pick it up, by all means. Just message me first.

The purpose of this little collection is mostly to serve as writing exercises and a way to force the plot bunnies in my head to stop hounding me at four in the morning. The pairings and situations will vary from each one shot, and some might end up interconnected if the mutinous plot bunnies have their wily ways with my brain.

If you have a pairing you'd like to see me attempt, I won't be adverse to hearing you out, otherwise I'll probably stick with my own preferences. That's not to say that this will be filled with only romance stories, this first story is platonic in nature for example, just that I know that's one of the more popular topics here on .

Also, I'll sometimes be using a defined main character for these shots. Especially the ones that take place in ANB. I might deviate occasionally, and certainly for when someone suggests a pairing that just won't work for her, but otherwise it's going to be the same person. When that happens, I'll let you know. I know some of you might prefer an undefined heroine or hero, however, so I might toy with that on occasion.

And with that, let us begin.

* * *

Characters: Yuri, the MC from ANB, and Allen.

Rating: K+

Summary: Sometimes being a good friend meant putting up with being someone's personal guinea pig at six in the morning.

Note: I am using my own MC from ANB for this. You can find her profile here, if you're interested, however it shouldn't matter much at the moment. (It's on , 11th page of the OC thread in the ANB area. Posted under the name VanillaCookies.)

* * *

There were some days the usually hard working Raea wished she could simply sleep out of existence. Days such as when all the animals in her limited care somehow spontaneously developed ringworm, and she had to the arduous process of disinfecting the entire barn and every piece of animal related equipment that she owned before attempting to treat the raised sores on their bodies. That had been one of first mistakes when she started taking care of livestock without the guidance of her mother, and it was a mistake that she wasn't keen on ever repeating again - as the frequently changed buckets of sterilizing equipment and soaps that hung next to her brushes and curries could attest too. Comparatively minor disease or no, her animals didn't deserve to pay for her negligence a second time.

Or like the time when the river running next to her farm had swollen to bursting, breaking down the levee that normally kept it in check and flooding her fields until all the crops that she had planted had been washed out into the nearby delta. The damage could have admittedly been much worse, and all of her animals had been evacuated to higher ground before the first leaks had even sprung, but the task of cleaning the debris from her land had not been something she particularly relished.

Then there were days like today, where she was woken from the comforting confines of her quilted bed by an insistent rapping upon her old, wooden door. The staccato sound growing more insistent upon each iteration.

Raea forced her eyes open blearily after the first minute of pounding, which she would have slept through if not for the fact that it had woken her small cat up with a hiss, and cast her eyes upon the alarm clock beside her modest bed. The numbers 5:47 flashed red in front of her eyes, and it was all she could do to prevent a groan from working it's way out of her throat. Early riser or not, there were just some days one didn't wish to be removed from the confines of their bed!

After staying frozen for a few moments longer trying to will her limbs to move, she somehow managed to find the strength to plop one food in front of the other upon the cold stone floor. Her back popped grotesquely as she heaved her body upright, bringing the quilt with her, and trudged towards the door with an exaggerated yawn.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming..."

No sooner had she opened the door, however, than a diminutive red headed woman came barging into the small abode - dragging racks and racks of clothing behind her in some kind of bizarre, multi-colored procession. All of which she then parked in the middle of the room around the small table before hurrying out of the house, only to return with even more items in her possession.

"Um... Yuri..? What is all of this...?"

A quick glance at the calender and a halfhearted shrug from the busy, bi-speckled young woman was all that was afforded to Raea, who in turn took no offense from what could have been seen as a dismissal. She knew Yuri well enough by now, after almost a year of living in the same town and one too many late night drinking sessions, that no offense was meant in the gesture. Instead she just shrugged in return, before turning to glance at the calender to find the answer. Sure enough, there it was, today's date encircled in thick blue sharpie with the words 'FASHION FESTIVAL' scrawled across the laminated paper.

She blinked slowly, allowing her eyes a few times before re-reading what she had written. Once she was sure that, no, it was not a hallucination, she turned back to look at Yuri who was busy organizing a work area for today's events.

...

Well that settled it...

It was way too early in the morning for this...

She rubbed her face absentmindedly as she moved towards the kitchenette to make a fresh batch of tea and coffee for her current company, absentmindedly scratching the offered back of her cat after it had jumped up on the counter seeking just such attention. All the while as recognition slowly filtered into her brain at a slugs pace.

She and the odd duo, that being Yuri and Allen, had been drinking at Clement's two months ago - well she and Allen had been doing the boozing really - when Dunhill somehow managed to barge into the small restaurant with one of his new 'ideas' for a festival. A fashion festival of all things. Who in their right mind would hold such a thing in their diminutive town? Not that she wasn't proud of the current size of it, mind you. She had worked her ass off to expand it this far. However it was hardly Milan or New York, and she distinctly remembered thinking that a fashion show out in the country like this wasn't likely to garner very many attendants. Yuri and Allen had not shared her thoughts on the matter however, although the latter had offered a cynical quip at the time, and before she knew it she was being plied with offers of her favorite foods and suddenly roped into being their 'model' for the event.

Her, the girl who could barely coordinate her socks properly, let alone an entire outfit - and whom thought having a rats nest for hair wasn't something to be all that bothered by.

Ha.

Still she had promised, even if it was only offered through bribery, and she might as well suck it up and allow them to work their 'magic' as Allen might have called it had he been there already. Though she knew it was only a matter of time before he showed up with his supplies.

With that thought in mind she slowly made her way towards the worn pair of barn boots that sat near her front door after setting a kettle on the heating stove, and dragged them over to the table. Might as well get some work over with now while there was still time. The flax should have finally matured over night, and would be waiting outside to be cleaved. However, she had barely put even one foot inside the first boot before a firm, yet small hand grasped her shoulder - which caused her to look up in confusion to find Yuri staring intently at her.

"Don't... Neil will take care of it..." she spoke in her usual slow, measured voice - with a slight hint of steel edging in behind the words. Yuri was well aware of how much of a work-a-holic her friend could be, and knew that if she allowed her to leave now there would be no roping her back into the home until well past ten.

"But I need to check on Laudnum today, she hasn't been adapting to the new feed as well as I would have liked."

A short but pointed glance and an increased pressure on her shoulder were the only answer she received, before Yuri went back to pulling outfits and various accessories out of the bags she had brought with her.

Ignoring it, Raea laced up the remainder of her boots and jogged to the door. She trusted Neil, really she did, but the thought of allowing another to do her work rankled somewhat. She'd only be a moment anyways..

Of course, trust the diminutive seamstress to always be two steps ahead of her thought process. Without so much as blinking she had calmly walked to the door and blocked her friend's progress, a steeled edge entering her normally placid features.

"We already paid him for his services... He's well acquainted with your animals, and will know what to do... Now come and sit down... Or do you want me to have to persuade you?"

Of course, persuasion didn't necessarily equate to getting actual talking - and Raea was well aware of just how much potential blackmail material her friend could have possibly collected over the past year. She wasn't the type to normally call upon such underhanded means, but when push came to shove and backed into a corner...

"You wouldn't..."

The look she received said otherwise, though it was accompanied by a teasing smile, and without so much as a backwards glance Yuri strode back to her work station - effectively ending the conversation.

Watching her friend go with a begrudging amount of admiration, Raea couldn't help but mutter "trust me to become friends with some of the few people in this village that can out stubborn myself.."

"You know you need someone to keep you in line when your bullheadedness gets the better of you," a masculine voice snarked from the doorway, as the loud screeching of the kettle blared in the background.

"I don't want to hear that from you, you primped up peacock," Raea quipped back with a smile as she watched the ever fashionable Allen stride into the room, toting his own various parcels and make up kits.

"You just wish you looked this fabulous midget," he winked back before he set his loads upon whatever surfaces Yuri hadn't already claimed. Once everything had found a place, he began digging through one of the bags before producing a ripened apple which he promptly shoved into Raea's mouth before walking around the kitchenette to begin dolling out the tea from the kettle. At her questioning glance, mouth still full of apple, he simply shrugged, "I figured you hadn't eaten yet, and frankly I don't want you munching on something that will leave stains everywhere. So you'll have to make due with that apple until the contest is over."

A look of warm filtered onto her face before she reached up and grasped the apple enough to tear a bite from it's hard flesh. All the while keeping her gaze fixed on Allen as he handed Yuri her cup of plain Spring Tea before he launched into a furry of hand motions as they went over their plan of attack.

She honestly wouldn't have believed it if someone had told her that these two would become her closest confidants a year into her stay in Echo village. In fact, she might have laughed till she was blue in the face before promptly telling whomever suggested such a thing to get their head examined as soon as humanly possible. On the surface they had almost nothing in common, Yuri and Allen being the well dressed fashion trendsetters of the tiny village - and her being the dingy farmer who was much more at home in a pair of torn jeans and beaten up t-shirt than anything runway worthy. Even their personalities were at odds in the beginning, with her famously telling Allen to remove the stick from his ass before she beat it so far up into his colon that it's be sticking out his nose - and her barely being able to get more than three words out of Yuri during their first meetings with one another.

Yet over the year things had somehow changed. Instead of being particularly offended by her insults, Allen had simply ripped right back into her with a tease or insult of his own - slowly building a camaraderie with the outspoken until their shared snarks came as easy as breathing to the two of them. With the final walls crumbling to a heap once they both revealed their shared love of bad mystery, paranormal, and sci-fi novels. Even now they set aside every third Sunday of the month to get together and laugh themselves to pieces over the newest drek that had been unleashed upon the under-read populous of the world.

Yuri on the other hand, had been a different matter altogether. They honestly didn't have much in common with one another, save for an acute understanding of what it felt like to be misunderstood by others. With her being rather bullheaded and, let's face it, bitchy when push came to shove and her concentration was broken away from a task - and Yuri being, well, her awkward monosyllabic self. Misunderstandings followed them like flies to honey, and it didn't take long for her to start to notice the slightly sad gleam that caught in Yuri's eyes several times a month after just such an occasion. It had been a simple matter to invite the young woman over with talks of linen and cotton for her shop, as Raea was her major supplier, and then awkwardly offer some herb soup as comfort once the pretense had been dropped. They hadn't looked back since, and a week had yet to go by when the two red headed women weren't huddled in blankets in front of someone's TV sharing popcorn and ice cream as they bonded over the latest mishap in their lives.

Something snapped loudly in front of her face, which caused her to rear back comically before falling back to the cold floor, her cat hissing in fright before running to the bathroom as her body collided with the hard surface - her apple having been flung to the far reaches of the room during the fall.

"I see the princess has finally deigned to grace us with her full presence," Allen sarcastically bit out with a grin as he laughed above her for a few moments before offering her his hand.

"Jerk," Raea mumbled in response before she grasped his hand and allowed him to haul her ass off the floor.

"Now that's not the nicest thing to say to someone who is helping you, I think I should just drop you back down, let you stew over your mistake on the cold floor and all."

Rolling her hazel eyes in a wide arc she grinned back up at him in mock self-derision, "oh forgive me, Lord Allen! I forgot myself! However shall I make it up to your gracious lordship?"

"Hm, that's better," a grin was her response before he pulled her up completely until she was standing on her own two feet. They stood like that for a few minutes, all in mock seriousness, before a chuckle escaped his lips. Then another, and another, and soon she was following him as they leaned on each other for support, laughing until their stomachs ached from the exertion.

"... Are you two done...?"

Both of them immediately tried to quite their hysterics as they looked up at Yuri, who was glancing back at them with a quirked brow and a slight tilt of the lip as compared two outfits against one another in her hands.

"Yes ma'am," they chorused, Raea throwing in a goofy salute for kicks with the knowledge that it would garner a slightly wider smile from the stoic young woman, before they separated from one another to turn to the task at hand.

"... Good," the smile grew as predicted, "now which pattern do you think would look better...?"

With that, the next few hours seemed to speed by in a blur, save for a few less than desirable instances that would make our poor farmer wonder just what she had gotten herself into...

* * *

Raea bit into her lower lip harsh enough to nearly draw blood as the comb descended through her tangled locks, unable to stop the warning hiss that managed to escape as her scalp flared in pain.

"If you took better care of it I wouldn't have to pull it so hard!" he snorted, "ever hear of this wonderful invention called the brush? I hear it's marvelous for keeping your hair from looking like a modern interpretation of a pig sty."

A growl resounded at that remark, though it was soon followed by a less than dignified yelp, "bite me, you pompous ass."

"Sorry dear, you're not my type," was the gleeful reply as the comb once again descended through her hair.

And so the torture continued. The only thought on Raea's mind as her short hair was moused, pulled, and curled to 'perfect' was that the food they treated her to for this better be worth it. Their smiles might make up for most of the morning, but that little extra incentive really would go a long way.

* * *

".. It's only a corset... Now suck in more..."

If looks could kill, the glance she sent over her exposed shoulder at the young seamstress would have sparked an inferno. They were trying on different styles, trying to see what presented the best completed look - and currently Yuri had deemed it fit to attempt to rob her friend of vitally needed oxygen with the infernal garment as they switched to more 'victorian' ensembles. Why people ever bothered with these contraptions was beyond Raea's understanding... But then again, fashion in and of itself was usually beyond it as well.

"Hm, maybe we shouldn't be treating her to food after this," Allen called out from his place in the kitchen as he watched Raea brace against the far wall of her home, "she's obviously been eating one too many puddings as of late."

"Allen, I swear to the Harvest Goddess...!" a snarl broke through from the oxygen deprived woman.

Yuri pushed her glasses up from the bridge of her nose as she stepped back to survey her handy work, "... I was right..."

"Huh?" Raea mumbled out in pain, glancing back at her friend in a daze.

"It doesn't look quite right... Let me get the other one."

A groan of pained exasperation and a bout of laughter were her only responses as Yuri turned back to the various bundles she had brought with her to procure a slightly different implement of torture, as Raea was fond of calling it.

* * *

"Stop fidgeting.." Yuri smacked at her arm in slight annoyance, or as close to it as the placid woman could get, as Raea fidgeted behind the curtain that the villagers had rigged on the usual festival platform.

"But I can barely walk in this..."

"Stop... Fidgeting..." a small warning glare was her final warning, as Yuri set about putting the finishing touches on the blue eastern inspired dress she and Allen and settled upon molding their friend into, complete with elaborate silver hairpins and high heeled shoes that Raea was convinces would be better served bludgeoning someone to death with.

Biting back a groan, knowing it would do her no good, Raea looked up at the sky in boredom, trying to block out the belting of the piano and violin on the other side of the curtain as each model walked down the runway. It was actually surprising how many designers had showed up, now that she thought about it. Turned out being so far into the country wasn't a solid deterrent for the fashion minded.

There were easily twenty contestants all vying for the slightly dented statute that Dunhill had managed to talk Iroha into smelting for just this occasion. She had to admit though, that the blacksmith was getting better with each trophy she was commissioned to make, the dent this time coming not from Iroha but from the rambunctious Toni earlier in the day as he had knocked it to the ground in his haste to help build the stage.

Once this was over, she'd have to have a talk with Dunhill about allowing the sugar filled youth anywhere near any future construction sites, but that was neither here nor there at the moment.

"Raea! They're calling your number, hurry out there!" Allen shoved her lightly from behind, breaking her out of her reverie. She gulped loudly as she looked towards the split in the curtain ahead of her before turning back to glance at the two who had wrangled her into this mess. All they offered were small smiles, a thumbs up and a wink before Allen began nudging her towards the opening, "break a leg princess," he muttered in her ear before pushing her the rest of the way towards the stage.

It was all she could do to keep her balance before she was shoved out into the spotlight, all eyes now trained on her as she stumbled onto the wooden walkway.

'I can do this... Just think of putting one foot in front of the other...'

It soon became apparent that this was a poor mantra to choose, however, as she had not taken more than five steps before she tripped over her skirts and careened face first into the solid, painted wood below. If she listened really closely, over the sound of the blood rushing to her head as the impact came, she could have always heard the twice groans of her friends behind the curtain as she performed a perfect face plant right in front of the judges.

All the while one thought floated through her head...

'Never wearing heels again...'

* * *

Somehow, in spite of the fall that was sure to make front page headlines in the morning, the out of town judges were suitably impressed with the entire ensemble - if not the model - enough to give them the first place trophy. The whole day had been hell, and there was still a part of her that wished she had bolted the door that morning instead of facing the horrors of the fashion world. However, seeing the twin smiles of her closest friends in the world as they posed with the trophy was enough to make up for most of the pain and humiliation. The rest they'd have to pay her back for with several bowls of tom yum goong, mind you, and maybe a chiffon cake or two - but for now Raea let those thoughts be cast aside.

Not a moment too soon it seemed, for scant seconds later she found Yuri's body colliding with her own in an all encompassing hug. An uncommonly wide smile stretched across her face, her eyes alight with gratitude as she looked up at her. Not far behind Allen had a similar look on his own face, a genuine smile quirking at his lips as he slipped his arms around the two women in a brief hug.

Maybe it hadn't been so bad after all, if it got them to smile like this...

Of course, Dunhill had to come up at that precise moment and ruin that particular thought process by announcing that, since this fashion festival had been such a splendid success, it would become one of their annual events here in the village. A way to bring even more people to the idyllic setting and expand the town even further!

This time Raea didn't even try to stop herself from groaning as two pairs of excited eyes locked onto her. She could already see the gears spinning in their heads over what they might be able to get away with next year to trump their previous fashions, and just what they might be able to get her to bear with. Sure their tab at Clement's would suffer, but it was a small price to pay for being able to defend their title in the coming year.

Screw it. Next year she was going to nail the door shut and stay in bed, friends or not.

* * *

A/N: That was actually kind of fun. I initially wanted to put hints towards who my MC is actually pursuing into the story, but I felt it was useless information. This story was written with a platonic Allen x MC relationship in mind, but I figured that I'd let people interpret it differently if they wished to do so.

Anyways, reviews and critiques are well loved! If you have a problem, don't hesitate to tell me. I might not implement it, if it's only a stylistic difference, but I appreciate you taking the time to point those sort of things out so I can improve. :)

Edit: I've sort of lost interest in ANB and with it this little collection, which is really just one story. So I'm marking it complete. Once I get back interest I'll be adding more, but for now the plot bunnies are well and dead.


End file.
